1843. To Prevent Damping or Fogging Off

1843.    To Prevent Damping or Fogging Off. Cuttings in heat, and seedlings pricked out, are very liable to damp off, if in a confined air, with too much moisture. The best mode of treatment is, as soon as evidences of damping appear, to give more air, and increase the temperature 5 degrees, and, at the same time, to sprinkle the surface of the soil with a mixture of silver-sand and powdered peat, crumbled to the fineness of snuff.

1844. To Remedy American Blight

1844.    To Remedy American Blight. Take 1/2 peck quicklime, 1/2 pound flowers of sulphur, and 1/4 pound lampblack. Mix with boiling water, enough to form a thick paint. "With this, in the winter, when the leaves are off, paint the branches, having first removed all loose bark. In doing this, be sure to remove the soil from the bottom of the stem to the main roots, and paint all the underground part. February is a good time for this. If one application is not sufficient, repeat. Use the paint warm. When this has become dry, the trees should be looked over, and all cracks and holes stopped with well worked clay, and after frost the clay-stoppings should be dressed again, to close any cracks that may occur.

1845. To Destroy Aphides, and Other Insects on Plants

1845.    To Destroy Aphides, and Other Insects on Plants. Take of quassia chips, 31/4 ounces; larkspur seed, 5 drachms; boil these together in 7 pints water until the decoction is reduced to 5 pints. When the liquid is cooled it is to be strained, and used with a watering-pot or syringe, as may be most convenient. This is a most excellent method of destroying insects on plants, without injury to the latter. It is recommended by the highest authorities.

1846. Blight on Fruit Trees, Roses, and Fruit Bushes

1846.    Blight on Fruit Trees, Roses, and Fruit Bushes. When winter dressings have failed, and the pests appear in spring to such an extent as to endanger the crop, procure a quantity of ammoniacal liquor from the gas-works, and to every pailful of the liquor add 6 of water, and boil as soon as possible in a large copper. Apply this in the evening, hot, with a syringe, drenching every part of the trees, and letting not a leaf escape. It should be used as hot as can be borne by placing the hand in it, and thrown with as much force as possible into all the crevices in the bark, on the under sides of the leaves, and splashed vigorously against the wall on which espaliers are trained. It may be used also for roses and fruit bushes, with the most certain benefit. Two days after give another syringing with plain warm water. To clean the copper in which the mixture is prepared, fill it with water, throw in a shovel of cinder ashes and a pound of soda, and let it boil for half an hour.

1847. To Prevent Ants from Injuring Fruit Trees

1847.    To Prevent Ants from Injuring Fruit Trees. Make a line of gas-tar round the stem of the tree, or if it be trained on a wall, make a horizontal line near the ground, on the wall, and one round the stem; this will prevent ants from ascending.